Hi,
I installed Ubuntu.
Then I foolishly installed Ubuntu.
I might have done this another time.
The boot up sequence was a mess. Windows xp was in it too.

Anyway I have an 80G hard drive. Bios says so, One Ubuntu partition install screens said so, and a few of the 2007 utimate boot CD programs say so.

The trouble is that most partition systems, including ubuntu install say that it is about 75G, the extra missing storage is the size of the area that ubuntu takes away for itself when installling.

What can I try to restore the disk to the full size?
I have used maxtor low level format. (2007 Ultimate Boot CD)
I have written zeros to all parts of that drive.
I have remove and re-written the partition information several times.
I need a tool that will remove all partition stuff, not just the stuff below the 75G limit.

Would the 2008 UBCD be any better?

Oh, yes, I do not have money. Buying some software is generally out.

Sean

Read this

The contents of that computer have been trashed by the processes mentioned.
The backup was almost complete, only a few files of the OS were not backed up.
And a few more unrestorable from the backup.

Which is not the point.
At this point the problem is recovering the disk space, not the disk contents.

To re-state:
the disk measures 80G under Bios.
the partition stuff I have used seems to only acknowledge about 75G.
The missing space is the size of a ubuntu linux os resurved space on the disk.
And those contents have been likely lost too.
I just want my disk back, not the contents.

Sean

Did you actually read what I linked ?. You haven't "lost" anything - to Ubuntu or anything else.
You were sold 80,000,000,000 bytes.
your software is telling you you have 80,000,000,000/1024/1024/1024 Gibibytes.

Do the math.

I do not have to do the math.
The drive before I installed Linux showed 80G.
It showed 80G after the first install.
The drive after that mess shows 75G.
This is not a measurement artifact.
When I install Ubuntu now it shows about 71G (roundoff and unseen decimals)

If you could believe the problem as stated, could you solve it, and how would you go about doing so?

Sean

Linux: a fragile butterfly
Windows: a diseased, flea bitten junkyard dog.
Reality: a brick thrown.

I have thought of another way to present this problem.
One that might convince you.
I can provide screen shots, but that takes up bandwidth. I have fios, but your millage may vary.

Ok, lets start loading ubuntu. Eventually it gets to the partitioner.
The partitioner says something like, 'do you want to use the whole drive'`. It shows 80G
But it will not allow me to use more than about 75G.
This is using the same measuring tool, akin to using the same yardstick.

Also Bios said that the drive was a WDC WD800BB-750KAO
Taking the core WD800BB I find a link that does this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144102
It is an 80G drive. And this is a mystery, a harder problem than you might initially suspect.

I had a similar problem with some of the utils on Ultimate Boot 2007, they would show but not delete the extra partitions.

Sean

found a way:
dd is a command that can write to a hard drive.
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sba conv=noerror
or something like that will write zeros to the entire disk.

Then reinstall and try to use it.
The first reinstall it tried to use my second drive.
Backed up and used dd on that one two, and there was no problems
Sean